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There won’t be many of us out there who play sports or who keep active and have avoided injury. Perhaps a little niggle, something that’s forced you to go and see a physio or rest up; or perhaps it was something more serious, a break or a fracture, where you’ve been out on the sidelines for months.

Women in particular are more likely than men to suffer a sports related injury. But break your leg, dislocate your shoulder or pull a muscle and you’ll be given a timeframe of recovery. What about the mind though as you go through that? That will have been affected too. How long will you have to wait until you’re back healthy and will it be the same when you return? How might your body change in that time and could your confidence be impacted too?

On this episode of Women’s Sport Matters, Katie Smith asks the question - how connected are mind and muscle when it comes to injury? And which heals quicker?

Katie is joined by four time Paralympic champion Kadeena Cox who re-lives her unique journey from able-bodied athlete to para-athlete and the physical and mental challenges she’s faced since being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2014.

Meanwhile England and Manchester City defender Esme Morgan reveals how her own unrealistic expectations of how quickly she could recover from breaking her leg made her feel like ‘a failure’. Esme studies sports science alongside her football and explains how it’s made her more aware of how her body and mind connect - and also made her a bit of a nightmare for the physios at City (her words not ours)!

Plus Doctor Caroline Heaney, Senior lecturer in Sport and Fitness at the Open University and sport psychologist, explains why women are four and a half times more likely to suffer a non-contact anterior cruciate ligament injury than their male counterparts. Dr Heaney also explains why it’s crucial for physiotherapists to be able to deal with both the physical and psychological when it comes to injuries.

Panel: Kadeena Cox, Esme Morgan, Dr Caroline Heaney

Producer: Jonathan McKeith

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